Notable new district court opinion addressing effort to defend child porn sentencing guidelines

June 30, 2010

Regular readers know well the robust on-going debate in the federal courts concerning the federal sentencing guidelines and appropriate sentencing for child porn offenses. Though most detailed written sentencing opinion on the subject have assailed the operation and severity of the federal guidelines for child porn downloading offenses, earlier this year US District Judge John Adams issued a thoughtful opinion in US v. Cunningham, No. 1:09CR154 (N.D. Ohio Jan. 26, 2010) (discussed here) provided a detailed defense of the federal child porn guidelines. Now I have received a new opinion from US District Judge Lynn Adelman, US v. Diaz, No. 09-CR-302 (E.D. Wisc. June 30, 2010) (available for download below), which takes on the reasoning of Cunningham and “respectfully disagree[s] with the court’s observations.” Here is a snippet of this disagreement:

[T]he Cunningham court argued that the fact that certain enhancements apply on a frequent basis does not serve as a basis for negating the guidelines. Id. at 852-53. But where, as here, the imposition of those enhancements results in sentences approaching the maximum in criminal history category I, the approach developed by the Commission breaks down. Specifically, the Commission developed the criminal history axis of the Grid based on its conclusion that a defendant’s past record of criminal conduct was directly relevant to the four purposes of sentencing: a defendant with a record is more culpable than a first offender and thus deserving of greater punishment; deterrence requires that a message be sent that repeat criminal behavior will aggravate the need for punishment with each recurrence; to protect the public, the likelihood of recidivism must be considered; and repeated criminal behavior is an indicator of a limited likelihood of successful rehabilitation. See U.S.S.G. ch. 4 introductory commentary. If even a first offender approaches the maximum based on the offense level alone, chapter four becomes irrelevant, and a first-time offender is treated similarly to a recidivist. That is not what the Commission (or the Sentencing Reform Act) intended.

Download Diaz written sentencing memo

The academic in me who is interested in robust sentencing debate is especially intrigued and excited to see these district judges issuing dueling sentencing opinions providing thoughtful and thorough written accounts explaining just how and why they decided to exercise their sentencing discretion in a particular way. But the citizen in me who is generally interested in federal defendants facing similar sentencing realities for similar criminal conduct is wondering if and when federal appellate courts or the Sentencing Commission or Congress will try to start herding the district court sentencing cats that continue to stray because the current sentencing guidelines appear to most participants to be providing very poor guidance in the vast majority of child porn downloading cases.

Some related prior federal child porn prosecution and sentencing posts: